• 11/4/2004
  • Montreal, Quebec
  • Ross Marowits
  • Montreal Gazette

A cancer survivor who started smoking when he was 10 years old was in court Thursday, hoping his class-action lawsuit will secure billions of dollars in damages from Canada’s leading tobacco companies.

“I’m an example of what cigarettes can do to you,” Jean-Yves Blais said during a break in proceedings in Quebec Superior Court.

“I’ve lost my health.”

The 60-year-old taxi driver from St-Hubert, Que., lost a lung to cancer in 1997. A year later, he launched the class-action suit with the Quebec Council on Tobacco and Health against Imperial Tobacco, Rothmans, Benson & Hedges, and JTI-MacDonald. He’s trying to win up to $100,000 for each of the estimated 40,000 to 45,000 Quebecers who have suffered emphysema or cancer of the lungs, larynx or throat between 1995 and 1998. For six years, he has waited while efforts to have his lawsuit certified have been repeatedly delayed.

Joining him in court was Cecilia Letourneau, who says she has been addicted to nicotine since she began smoking in 1964 as a 19-year-old. She filed a separate class-action suit in 2001 that is seeking $5,000 each for an estimated two million Quebec smokers addicted to nicotine.

“I’m doing this so in the end future generations can have truthful and complete information about the real dangers related to smoking,” she told reporters.

Family members of smokers who have since died would be covered in both lawsuits. Both plaintiffs say they have been unable to kick their smoking habit despite years of failed attempts. The Quebec Court of Appeal ordered the requests for certification to be heard together. Lawyers for both sides are expected to present their arguments over the next two weeks.

The tobacco companies argue the class-action process isn’t appropriate since each case is unique.

“We’re estimating this would take decades to hear because there are too many individual issues that would have to be dealt with for every plaintiff,” said Imperial Tobacco spokeswoman Christina Dona. She added that Canadians have long been warned about the dangers of smoking.

“The risks associated with tobacco use have been well-known for the last 50 years,” Dona said.

There have been six tobacco-related class-action suits filed in Canada. Proponents believe Quebec’s rules for civil lawsuits provide the most fertile ground to secure Canada’s first certified class action against the tobacco industry.

“The possibility of certification in Quebec is more likely than in other provinces, whether it’s tobacco or some other issue,” said Rob Cunningham, senior policy analyst for the Canadian Cancer Society.

A similar case was heard last week in British Columbia. A Newfoundland law firm last summer filed a class-action suit against Imperial Tobacco over the marketing of light cigarettes.

In the United States, tobacco companies have appealed a $10.1 billion US class-action judgment in Illinois over the marketing of light cigarettes.

An Ontario suit was rejected earlier this year when the judge ruled there weren’t enough common issues to proceed. The plaintiffs were seeking damages for anyone who smoked over 50 years, whether or not they became ill.

The effort by Blais is more limited, said tobacco council spokesman Michel Lemay.

“The ultimate goal is clearly to make sure that those people who are sick because of their smoking for a long time are helped.”